bluestreak

Yea I almost guarantee it will be open. Crowds at that time of year are only bad on opening day. The weekend you are there won't be dead so to speak, but you should have no problems riding everything.

I'm in the minority that still really likes Firehawk. Vortex I IMO was running like crap last year

... sounds like one hell of an exciting offseason.

^ challenge park was EXTREMELY unpopular. Kind of out of the way and somewhat over priced. Skyscraper probably got no more than 8,000-10,000 riders the whole season to be honest.

I know this post is very sarcastic but this post requires more shots than just 3...

^ oh well.... it's the thought that counts right???

^ maybe to one of the smaller parks in the chain like VF or DP?

This seems 100% likely. Especially since the go-karts at challenge park were closed for almost the whole second half of the season. I wonder if they would also move sky scraper or just get rid of it. It has been my opinion for a long time that Soak City is a very underwhelming waterpark to be connected to an amusement park like CP. This would definitely open up a ton of room for expansion.

I liked STR but I'm really not sad to see it go. I always thought that land could be used for something better. Oh the endless possibilities!

Um.... That's what she said? I think that's the first time I've seen someone use the smilies

^ I think we dropped that subject. Just sayin... As for Carowinds assigning seats I only experienced that on Fury and Intimidator and they did a superb job on both. This was also at the end of July. I've never ever been assigned a seat at Cedar Point. Every time they try I ask if I can sit in the front or back and they happily allow me.

They also put in the rest of the final break run today! They got tons of work done today!

shhhhhh you might wake *them* up

Onto Dollywood! We woke up Bright and early that Thursday morning so we could get to the park early and pick up our Time Saver Q-Bot. (only $25 is awesome considering we come from Cedar Point and fastlane in regularly $90 a person) Turns out we did not need the time saver either day (only bought it on Thursday) because the park was surprisingly dead. I assume they do their best business on Saturdays? Q-Bots are fun anyways so we're glad we bought it. It does still shock me the park was so dead at the end of July/early August but I was happy to not deal with crowds. So Dollywood. Being a regular on the TPR forums and hearing many parks get compared to Dollywood, I came in with insanely high expectations. Every single one of them was exceeded. Every coaster. Every ride. Every bite to eat. Everything blew me away. We aren't even "show people" but the wild bird show they had we saw and very much enjoyed. We didn't quite need 2 days but I can see that if you wanted to see all the shows Dollywood has to offer that you'd want to stay 2 days. Onto the ride reviews... I'm only doing the rides that stick out to me at the moment. We rode everything multiple times so if I reviewed everything this report would be just a little bit too long. Anyways.... Wild Eagle This was my 200th coaster and worthy of being a 200th coaster. No its not incredibly forceful (after all it is a B&M wing rider) but it is just Fun. And ultimately that's what you want out of a coaster right? Every part of the ride was butter smooth and there was even a slight pop of air (much more comfortable than the pop of air I got on the go-karts the day before. Better landing too!) towards the end of the ride. Good enough for 3rd (out of 4) on my wingrider list behind Gatekeeper and Thunderbird and infront of X-Flight) We stuck to the front seat or last seat with nothing in between. No crowds and 2 train operations helped to make this ride no more than a 4 train wait at any time either day. We probably rode this 20 times over the 2 days we were there. Fire Chaser Express The park really knocked it out of the "park" with this ride. The "not so new" new hotness of the park was running like it opened the day before. Yes it's a family coaster. I don't care. I loved it. Every single part of this ride is damn near perfect. Smooth and surprisingly fast for a family coaster. Fireworks factory was awesomely well done. Another ride we rode 20+ times. Never waited more than 15 minutes although the line did push 45 minutes at different times of the day. Understandable considering the relatively low capacity of the ride. Also the water falls leading up to the entrance of the ride were just beautiful. Tennessee Tornado I have always heard good things about this ride but I didn't believe it. I mean come on... and Arrow Mega-looper that goes 70 mph? There's no chance this thing is smooth right? Wrong. 100% wrong. I don't know how Dolly pulled it off but she did! (although I'm sure she did it with a little help from Arrow ) Fantastic drop through the tunnel and smooth transition after smooth inversion after smooth transition. Best arrow looper ever. Oh you say _______ is better? You're wrong. Tennessee Tornado is the best. Unfortunately only 1 train is used for this ride (not even a second train in sight) but it really didn't matter because the majority of park patrons for one reason or another stayed away from the ride. Only 1-2 train waits at the most. 10+ rides on this one. Blazing Fury ANOTHER FURY????????? Sadly no 325 foot lift hills or 95 mph speeds on this one though. Seriously though. What a quirky little ride/coaster thing. Yes the age shows but that's part of the charm. Very unique and somewhat fun ride. Unfortunately the ride had a decent line and semi slow operations so we only rode it twice. Not the ride's fault though. I would say it's a must ride only because of the uniqueness of it. Mystery Mine Ok yes it's pretty rough on the head but that doesn't take away from the outstanding themeing and the crazy (and smooth) finale. Low capacity caused this line to stick around the half hour mark but we still managed about 7 or 8 rides on it. Thunderhead Looking for a butter smooth woody showing no signs of age whatsoever? Look somewhere else. Looking for a woody that shows some "attitude" and is still not headache inducing? You've come to the correct ride. Just a fun ride to throw your hands in the air and have a good time on this crazy fast paced, airtime machine from GCI. The only other GCIs I've been on are Lightning Racer and Renegade. I like renegade a little better than Thunderhead but I like thunderhead better than lightning racer. Minimal lines made 10-12 rides on this easy. Also of note: The log flume was a heck of a lot of fun even though it didn't get you all that wet. Very well themed. Barnstormer is an S&S Screamin Swing. Always a ton of fun and the Barn themeing mad it that much better. Oh and you can't go to Dollywood without getting a loaf (or 6 in our case) of Cinnamon Bread. Best. Food. Ever. One final note: Lightning Rod was only 1 small support sticking out of the ground during our visit and was not yet announced. Crazy to think that the ride could be testing in the next couple days now. Definitely would be going back to Dollywood soon anyways but LR is the "Cinnamon Bread" Icing on the cake. Actually this is the final note: As mentioned in the report we visited holiday world and rode Thunderbird a month or so before this trip along with Kentucky Kingdom. Now that this trip report is over I'll be getting started on that Photo TR if I can find the time. But for now, onto the final set of pictures documenting our time before the drive back home to Northeast Ohio. All these pictures are taken on a Galaxy S3 but an amateur photographer so sorry about that... Hope you enjoyed this whole TR! Incase you forgot where I was. Best arrow looper ever. Nearly impossible to get a picture of though. ... and yet somehow smooth. Too bad arrow didn't stay around long enough to build more awesome smooth loopers Love the wooded area the ride sits in From afar Hello Mr. 200th coaster Awesome statue. Love how high above the midway it is. Hopefully not the last B&M built at the park This was fun too So unique. Fun ride. Too bad I forget the name of it at the moment. Only picture I got of Fire Chaser... whoops Pretty good ride. My phone was dying so sadly only a few more pictures Artsy shadow shot. I believe it Last one Found one more of FCE Also fun. This part hurts This part is great One last shot of Wild Eagle. Thanks for reading! If I find any more pictures I'll be sure to post them!

Hi everybody! I finally found some time to get the final park of our Summer 2015 trip (Dollywood) onto the forum. I can't believe the Carowinds update was way back in the summer, but life gets in the way ya know? Anyways.... Dollywood and the Pigeon Forge area. I did not take any pictures of the Pigeon Forge area but I'll put together a small review of it now. Well this was my first time visiting the area and if it weren't for Dollywood it would be my last. Talk about just busy and overcrowded with crappy little carnival rides and damn near dangerous go-kart tracks (depending on the other drivers. More on that later) ALL over the place. All of course were way over priced. We didn't do any of the shows in the area but I'm sure by the looks of the buildings each reside in that they were not nearly as crappy as the area. We did do the 3 alpine coasters in the area. (The smoky Mountain alpine coaster, The coaster at Goats on the Roof, and The Gatlinburg Mountain coaster). All of which were great fun but nothing beats SMAC at night. The track is all lit up with neon lights. Very cool experience. Thank God they were away from the hustle and bustle of the main street in Pigeon Forge. Oh and the 3 pancake houses scattered throughout the area we tried were all delicious. Ok on to my little go-kart story. Those of you familiar with the area will know what im talking about when I talk about the track along the road that has a f*****g double down in it. We had nothing better to do the night we arrived in the area so why not blow $20 on a go-kart track that might kill you? Since I'm competitive by nature and wanted to win that race, I took that double down at full speed every time. Each time getting the car slightly off the "road". One of those times I was neck and neck with another apparent competitive racer and right as I crested the second drop this kid (about 19) decided to make a hard right and hit the side of my car. I went completely side-ways. Thankfully I landed on all four wheels (albeit I landed extremely hard and my tail bone was in some intense pain the next couple days) and was able to straighten myself out and continue the race, albeit a little slower. I can't imagine what would've happened if I didn't land correctly. Lesson of the day: stay away from the track with the double down. Your body will most likely thank you. I'm going to do the Dollywood portion of the report in the next post. Days 2 and 3 in pigeon forge were much better than day 1!

Don't worry, your wife's joke post was probably more coherent and insightful than 90% of the actual posts in this thread for the last week or so. Can't say I disagree with this statement... unfortunately.

^ and it's my understanding that RoS breaks down a lot anyways so I agree with the above statement.

I found a post on instagram that has a map of the attractions open today. Gold Striker, Vortex, and Demon are the coasters and Xtreme Skyflyer, the Columbia Carousel, Celebration Swings, the car ride, and the observation deck. Sounds like a great time for those lucky enough to have tickets to the game.

Part of the reason I think CF will do anything to keep that park open is the simple fact that they invested a ton into Gold Striker and its been from my understanding a huge hit. They wouldn't want to see their investment thrown away like that.

Will anybody here be going by the park and stadium tomorrow? Would love to see some pictures of the happenings in the area.

Thank you for breaking up the senseless arguments lol.

Yea I'm probably going to stay off this thread for a while. I'll come back when the boat comes back...

Tony just tweeted this on Twitter and if you look at the video animation of the train, it looks like the covering that goes over the wheels. Seems that the trains have arrived! Video link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nLqVqX_Npeg *Edit whoops didn't see someone else had posted it before me!

This is a Six Flags park, it would be Twix

I think I remember seeing 1% as well. Also, I would chalk that up to the general public really thinking it's just another ride that goes upside-down at kings island. Something that has been seen there many times before. That 1% was probably all coaster enthusiasts. If KI were to get a Giga I think that would draw more people because the GP that would go to KI have never seem anything like that before. Just my opinion but I think a Giga in 2017 or 2018 is pretty much the only option coaster wise the next 5 or so years